blood diamonds

Blood Diamonds (or “Conflict Diamonds”) are diamonds that are mined in parts of African counties controlled by rebel forces. Rebels sell the slave mined diamonds, and the profit is used for weapons to fund their military. These diamonds are obtained by the forced labor of civilians (many of which children). The diamonds are illegally put into the international diamond trade and sold. Arms merchants, smugglers, and corrupt corporate diamond traders buy these stones for cheep and sell them doubling their profit. The Rebels are pulling in huge sums of money by bribing, threatening, enslaving, torturing, and murdering (hence “blood diamonds”). They are fuelling their own peoples suffering for rocks and power. The UN has developed a certification procedure called the “Kimberly Process”. This requires nations to certify that diamond exports are produced through ethical and paid mining. The certification must prove that the diamonds are legitimate from mine to sale.